Cutting the Cord!

Enough! I had enough of cable and I definitely had enough of paying a high cable bill.

It was nice to get lots of channels, but when I would look through the online guide, I realized how many were just junk. They were shopping channels, movies we wouldn't watch anyway, and informercials galore. It especially bugged me with how much time we were spending watching tv, too.

At first, the family kind of fought me on it. I explained it was a monthly bill we most definitely could do without and we were just too dependent on it. "But our shows...." was their response. To which, I said was proof we were too addicted to the tv. Hubby admits he was fighting it the most. As a good mother, I decided I would be negligent of my motherly duties if I did not throw a good ole guilt trip in there as well. This is the guilt trip I used:

We spend (insert ungodly amount of money) every month for tv when we have missionaries who are going without (food, housing, etc.)

Yeah, that got them.  Hubby said I'm really good at bringing down a shower of shame upon him.

I called the company and ordered the disconnect. Boy, did they ever do a dance to keep me. They called me numerous times to offer me amazing deals—amazing till you read the fine print, that is. Why couldn't that deal been on the table in the first place? But, I assured them I was firm in my decision and part of the reason was that we were too dependent on tv. One lady explained to me all I had to do was record the shows on the DVR and then just binge watch them. Okay, she needs a vocabulary lesson because "binge" and "dependency" kind of go hand-in-hand with addictions. Another representative, who spent numerous minutes of my life simply repeating himself (I realized his script on the computer screen froze so he was stalling for time), told me that I could stay with DirecTv and just merely tell my children on a certain day was when they could watch tv. How refreshing to know DirecTv is qualified to give me parental advice! Both representatives tried to tell me streaming was not reliable and you couldn't watch your shows when you wanted them. Clearly, they still didn't understand that still is catering to an addiction and they had never heard of an over-the-air DVR.

I found a basic antenna on Amazon for under $7, with free shipping. We are getting several over-the-air channels now. Our tv is a smart tv, so we were already able to stream Netflix, YouTube, and numerous other streaming sites. Eventually, I may splurge for a more powerful antenna to put in the attic. I would also like Oldest Son to show me how to turn the tv into a computer as well. Numerous channels have websites where you can watch episodes of their shows for free. You may have to wait a few weeks for the latest episode, but again, that helps break the tv addiction. We are such a "got to have it now" society that I'm okay if my family and I learn to wait on things a bit. Even simple things as a tv show.

By the way, the family has adjusted really well.